Building bridges: FRANCE 24 meets last surviving monk of Tibhirine

Date created : 14/12/2018 - 16:05

By:
Karim YAHIAOUI
|
Mohamed FARHAT
|
Anca ULEA
|
Wassim CORNET

Father Jean-Pierre Schumacher is the last surviving monk of Tibhirine. He was part of a group of Trappist monks who, despite the Algerian civil war in the 1990s, decided to stay in their monastery in the Atlas Mountains, living alongside the locals in harmony. In 1996, seven of them were kidnapped and later assassinated by a group of armed men. Their slaying remains unsolved and controversial to this day.

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While those seven monks were beatified last week - alongside 12 other clergy assassinated during Algeria's so-called "Black Decade" - our reporters met up with Jean-Pierre Schumacher, the sole surviving member of the Tibhirine monastery. Now 94, he still lives in the Atlas Mountains, on the Moroccan side, in a monastery dedicated to the memory of his brothers. Karim Yahiaoui and Mohamed Farhat report, with Anca Ulea and Wassim Cornet.